


Boxes and Coins

by Spotted_Newt



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, M/M, Order 66 (Star Wars)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-22
Updated: 2021-01-23
Packaged: 2021-03-13 16:01:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,189
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28906044
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spotted_Newt/pseuds/Spotted_Newt
Summary: Cody and CC-2224 were two sides of a single man. Like a coin, or a chance cube. Different faces that he showed to different people, but each part of what made him whole.Perhaps that is why it was so shocking when, on Utapau, CC-2224 suddenly sprang forth and wrenched the controls out of Cody’s hands, flinging him back into a glass cell and sealing the door.
Relationships: CC-2224 | Cody/Obi-Wan Kenobi
Comments: 36
Kudos: 84





	1. Chapter 1

Clone Commander Cody had always known that he was two people: Cody, and CC-2224. 

Or, well, perhaps it wasn’t quite accurate to say they were two people. It certainly felt like it at times; there was Cody, who held his brothers as they cried, who bantered with Rex, who kissed his Jedi in sweet moments stolen between battles; and there was CC-2224, who stood at attention when addressed by a superior, who was top of every class, who followed orders as a good soldier should. These two men weren’t technically different people, but sometimes the personas felt so opposite that Cody was amazed that they were both him. 

He supposed everyone was like that though. Everyone had the different sides of themselves that they showed to different people. For example, there was High General Kenobi, who flirted and fought and danced intellectual circles around his opponents; and there was Obi-Wan, who teased his former Padawan, and knew each of the clones by name, and returned the kisses stolen in the moments between battles. These were both part of Obi-Wan Kenobi, and they made him whole, just as CC-2224 and Cody were one whole man. Not a different person, just two of many sides of a single being. 

Like a coin, Cody mused. Or a chance cube. Many sides that make up one whole, none truly existing apart from the others.

Perhaps that is why it was so shocking when, on Utapau, CC-2224 suddenly sprang forth and wrenched the controls out of Cody’s hands, flinging him back into a glass cell and sealing the door.

For a moment, Cody stood frozen. Stunned. He’d always known there were two people in himself, but that had been just a metaphor. Just a way of thinking about the different sides of himself that he showed at different times. But now… now it was more than a metaphor. Now it was real. Now Cody was locked up in his own head while CC-2224 took control. CC-2224, who had always been part of Cody, but now felt like an entirely different being. The limbs of the body they shared moved of their own accord, as instructed by CC-2224. The thoughts that flitted through his mind, cool and calculated, felt as though they originated from someone other than himself. Cody had no access to the mind or body they shared. The body just moved, the mouth spoke, and the thoughts flitted through, and Cody had no control over any of it. All Cody could do was watch, from his little glass box. Watch, as if watching a simulation or a holo-film. 

Watch, and scream. 

Because CC-2224 gave the order for Cody’s  _ cyare _ to be killed. 

Because CC-2224 killed brothers who didn’t comply with the Order. 

Because CC-2224 didn’t care. Didn’t feel. 

But Cody did. 

_ Stop _ ! Cody shouted, slamming his fists against the glass box.  _ Stop, don’t! _

_ Good soldiers follow orders _ , said CC-2224. 

It was all CC-2224 ever said. At least to Cody. To others, he gave monotone reports. He barked out orders and said ‘yes sir’ when appropriate. But to all of Cody’s cries and curses and pleas, he only repeated one line. 

_ Good soldiers follow orders.  _

For a while, Cody tried to fight. While CC-2224 followed orders, Cody scratched at the seams of the box. While CC-2224 used their legs to march down dark grey halls, Cody tried to freeze them in place. While CC-2224 used their hands to kill civilians, Cody tried to stop their finger on the trigger. 

But he never could. 

No matter how hard he focused, he couldn’t access the body that had once been his. He could only watch through its eyes as CC-2224 followed orders. 

Watch, and scream. 

Eventually he stopped trying. He stopped fighting against every order given to CC-2224. All it did was make his head ache from the effort (though CC-2224 showed no sign of feeling the pain at all) and so he retreated to the corner of his cell and fell silent. His screaming never deterred CC-2224 anyway. 

He discovered, quite by accident, that though he was trapped in a glass cell with no access to his body, he did have access to the depths of his mind. He could sink into oceans of memory, where the sun set fire to his  _ cyare _ ’s hair, and Rex rolled his eyes at Cody’s mothering, and Boil laughed at a joke Waxer had told. And if he sunk deep enough, he couldn’t see what CC-2224 was doing. And if he sunk a little deeper, he couldn’t hear the cries of the people CC-2224 killed. And if he sunk just a  _ bit _ deeper, he couldn’t feel anything at all. 

There was nothing to see, here in the depths of the ocean. Nothing to hear. Nothing to feel. No happy memories, but no horrors either. 

There was nothing. 

And so, while CC-2224 followed orders, Cody closed his eyes and disappeared. 


	2. Chapter 2

_ “Cody…” _

Something stirred him, in the depths of the Dark. 

_ “This isn’t you.” _

A… voice? 

_ “This isn’t you, Cody.” _

He wondered, idly, how much time had passed. How long it had been since he sunk into the ocean and let himself fade into nothingness. 

_ “Cody, I know you’re in there. I know you can hear me.” _

He squinted up through the dark. He  _ could _ hear, and that came as a surprise, in a detached sort of way. There wasn’t supposed to be any sound down here. 

_ “Come on, Cody. Fight it.” _

And yet there was. That voice. 

_ “I’m so sorry they did this to you.” _

Sorry… what was the voice sorry about? Cody had so much to be sorry for. He knew that, even as he clung to the dark so he wouldn’t have to remember. 

_ “Come back to me, cyare.” _

Come back? No thanks. The dark was nice. In the dark, he didn’t have to remember the things he had done, the things CC-2224 had done with his body, things like killing Obi-W-

And all at once, Cody’s conscious catapulted back to the surface. 

“-an you hear me, Cody?”

He stared for a moment. It couldn’t be. Obi-Wan, his Jedi, his love, standing in front of him. How could it be? He’d ordered him to be killed, he’d seen him fall, he-

-was holding him at gunpoint. 

Cody gasped, eyes widening, and threw himself at the front of the glass. Obi-Wan was here, he was alive, and looking at Cody with those bright blue eyes that held so much sadness. He was standing in some kind of room, the walls made of sandstone. His hands were raised in a placating gesture, mouth forming words that tried to do the same.

And CC-2224 was holding a blaster level with his chest,  _ good soldiers follow orders _ marching through his brain. 

_ Obi-Wan! _ Cody tried to scream.  _ Obi-Wan, I’m here! I’m in here, I’m trapped, you need to run, go, before I hurt you! _

But of course, CC-2224’s mouth didn’t say those words. “You are a traitor of the Empire,” he said instead. “You are to be executed for your crimes.”

“This isn’t you, Cody,” Obi-Wan said again, a note of pleading in his otherwise even tone. “Try to remember. Try to fight what they’ve done to you. You can do it, love.”

And oh, Cody fought. He mustered up every bit of mental strength he had and railed against the prison CC-2224 had kept him in all this time. He tore at the walls, and flung his conscious at it, and he clawed for control of his limbs. Scratching, snarling, shouting, he found the source of CC-2224’s orders and  _ threw _ himself wholly against it. 

He felt a sharp pain lance through his skull. It was like taking a blaster bolt straight to the head, or, no, perhaps more like someone forcefully driving a dull spike into him. A steadily growing pressure, the pain increasing tenfold with every half-second that passed. Surely he must be bleeding by now. His skull must have split open on the outside too, given how much pain he felt. Cody gave one last  _ shove _ …

The pressure crested, then subsided, leaving behind a dull but steady ache and a thoroughly exhausted Cody. 

“Good soldiers follow orders,” said CC-2224. He pulled the trigger. 

_ NO _ !

Obi-Wan gasped and stumbled backwards a step, then fell to his knees. 

_ NO _ ! That wasn’t how this was supposed to go. He’d given it everything he had, every ounce of strength and resolve plus ten percent more. He… he should have won. That’s what always happened in the films and the books and the stories parents tell their children. At the last moment, when the odds are impossible, the protagonist always  _ wins _ . They always overcome the impossible odds and find that last scrap of energy to overcome the villain. 

But life wasn’t like a story. 

_ No no no! Ni ceta, ni ceta, ni ceta, cyare, ni ceta.  _

Cody fell against the glass, all strength gone from him and heart shattering as CC-2224 adjusted his grip and lined up for another shot. 

_ No, please, no, Obi-Wan, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m not strong enough, ni ceta.  _

“It’s alright, Cody,” Obi-Wan said. He tilted his head back to meet CC-2224’s eyes. “I hear you.”

Cody might have been relieved, if he weren’t so distraught.  _ I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I can’t stop him, I’m sorry.  _

“It’s not your fault,” Obi-Wan said. And he smiled, up at the man who just shot him, and that made it all worse, because of  _ course _ Obi-Wan would be so selfless even as he was dying. 

“Good soldiers follow orders,” CC-2224 said. 

(Cody wondered, bitterly, if that was the thing’s way of apologizing.)

“Yes, I believe you’ve said that already,” the Jedi commented in response to CC-2224’s words. He quirked an eyebrow, and then his smile morphed into a smirk. 

What was he- he was  _ dying _ , what was he  _ doing _ , smirking like that?

“And good Jedi heed the Force,” Obi-Wan continued. And then he  _ pushed himself to his feet _ , and tugged his robe aside, revealing armor beneath the fabric. “Even when the Force gives odd and mysterious instructions.”

Cody couldn’t believe it. If he wasn’t already a sobbing mess, he would have collapsed into one at the realization that his Jedi was  _ alive _ , not dead, not dying,  _ alive _ . 

CC-2224 was less impressed. He tightened his finger on the trigger once more, but Obi-Wan was faster. He yanked the blaster from CC-2224’s hand with the Force and threw him back against the wall. The clone gave a grunt as his head hit stone. 

“Oh dear, I’m terribly sorry,” Obi-Wan said, and he sounded like he really was. “I hope that didn’t hurt too badly.”

Cody couldn’t have cared less about a cracked skull right now.

“This next part will hurt too,” the Jedi continued, still with that note of apology in his tone. “Are you ready, Cody?”

_ Yes, yes, please, I’m sorry.  _

“Alright then.”

Obi-Wan stretched out his other hand and squeezed his eyes shut. Cody felt the pain return, steadily growing, and CC-2224 must have felt it too this time because he gasped, and then yelped, and then screamed as the pain climbed. Cody did too; he couldn’t help it, he felt like his brain was being ripped apart by a thousand fishhooks and his skull crushed and shattered under the feet of AT-AT walkers. 

Idly, he wondered if  _ he _ was the one dying. 

And then there was a little  _ pop _ , and a release, and when Cody gasped the sound came from his own mouth. 

He was free. 

“Cody?” Obi-Wan’s voice sounded alarmed, and oddly far away. 

_ I’m alright _ , Cody wanted to say.  _ I’m free. You saved me. Thank you. I’m sorry _ . 

But he didn’t say any of those things. He just gasped again, and felt his body fall towards the floor as the Jedi released his grip on the Force, and then the world faded away. 

Obi-Wan caught Cody has he fell, wrapping his arms around the clunky plastoid armor and cradling the clone in his lap. The pain radiating into the Force was concerning, as was the blood that had begun to flow from Cody’s nose. Obi-Wan’s heart clenched at the sight, and he really hoped he hadn’t just signed Cody over to his death. He couldn’t bear to lose him, not like this, not after all these years of wondering and wishing and begging the Force to let him go back in time just for one moment, just to hold Cody one last time before everything turned to chaos.

He sent another silent plea to the Force now.  _ Let him make it. Please, don’t take him from me like this. _

Obi-Wan was no expert healer, and head injuries required care and caution. But there was nowhere for him to take the trooper. He’d have to make do himself and trust the Force.

“It’s alright, love,” Obi-Wan murmured, cradling Cody closer and leaning forward to press their foreheads together. “You’ll be ok. We’ll both be ok.”

That really wasn’t a promise Obi-Wan could make, given the circumstances. But he did, and he intended to keep it. 

Time to set to work. 


End file.
